SAIL: Networks are the rule of day, but with costs
Welcome to Sensemaking, AI, and Learning (SAIL) a regular look at how AI advances impact education.
In a conversation today, I was reminded of a paper that influenced my understanding of the impacts of technology on learning: Barry Wellman's Little Boxes, Glocalization, and Networked Individualism. (If you don't has access, a simple web search will provide pdf options). It's not a great article in terms of quality research, but it fits into that category of "it opened a new way of thinking". As web 2.0 was rising, I largely attributed being connected with positives: we hear from distant family and friends, we can track trends globally, we can provoke one another to advance on ethical causes, etc. However, increased digital connection does not mean increased mental health. If fact, it may be the opposite (thanks Tanya) as happiness may be found in "liv[ing] without modern consumerism". Authentic social interactions, not simulated or synthetic digital ones are increasingly urgent.
AI and Education:
AI may be the least of edtech's worries. (sorry for the paywall articles - there are a few this week)
Students turning to AI over human tutors? Yes. "Eighty-five percent of high school and college students surveyed say studying with ChatGPT is more effective than studying with a tutor."
How will AI change higher education? We've run out of new things to say about AI. We're repeating now. These 12 reflections from various people in higher education offer a good scoping review of where we are. Not much novel though. Which means we're coalescing around a narrative of some sort. The landscape feels less wildly expansive than it did in late 2022.
June 2 (i.e. this Friday), 4pm EST, we have Adrienne Williams, from DAIR Institute, presenting to our Sensemaking Lecture Series. Registration info is here if you haven't signed up yet.
AI Canon. Flag this resource for personal learning when your life allows.
AI-driven course development is an early application of generative AI. Now with tools like EdApp and Open Education's AI Assistant, we're seeing a second area of AI application in education (the first is obviously tutors). Soon we'll be creating, teaching, and tutoring students in a span of minutes. Let's say one is, hypothetically of course, wanting to create a new university...tutoring and course development are low hanging fruits for AI. Even if the impact is only a 20% reduction in time, across an entire enterprise, the economic benefit is outstanding.
AI Regulation:
State of AI Risk: "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war." Many important people say AI is an existential risk. But they are not offering much help. They're just saying it's bad. And trying to scare us. It's kind of like an advanced militarized country concluding that the weapons that they have are so powerful that others shouldn't have them. As someone said "We've just had a pandemic. Many countries have nuclear weapons that are ready to go. The most powerful AI we know how to build predicts word sequences. This is not the same threat and it distracts from actual threats from contemporary AI models." I'd still put climate change higher on the list than AI.
Lawyers aren't being very lawyerly."“Six of the submitted cases appear to be bogus judicial decisions with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations,” and set up a hearing as he considers sanctions for the plaintiff’s lawyers. Lawyer Steven A. Schwartz admitted in an affidavit that he had used OpenAI’s chatbot for his research."
AI Advances
Most people have heard of ChatGPT. Most don't use it regularly, however.
Nvidia, the chip maker supporting the current AI advances, briefly entered into $ 1trillion valuation.
Microsoft has launched "intelligent recap" for meetings. This service "leverages AI to automatically provide a comprehensive overview of your meeting, helping users save time catching up and coordinating next steps." It's just the start. We'll get AI in everything.
Robots are coming. "The deployment into the workforce can help address labor shortages and over time lead the way in eliminating the need for unsafe and undesirable jobs."